CYBR472 (2024) - Cybercrime Investigations

Prescription

This course offers an in-depth look at digital forensics, emphasizing its role in civil and criminal investigations including the legal context. Students will learn to analyse computer systems, mobile devices, and cloud environments, while understanding the legal and ethical aspects of forensic investigations. The program combines guest lectures from industry experts and practical exercises, preparing students to tackle real-world forensic challenges effectively.

Course learning objectives

Students who pass this course should be able to:

1. Apply the principles of digital forensics in the investigation of cybercrimes, using the digital forensics process to analyse and interpret electronic data.
2. Evaluate the legal and ethical implications of digital forensic investigations, particularly within the New Zealand legal context, and adapt practices to adhere to these frameworks.
3. Analyse and solve complex problems in computer and mobile forensics, cloud forensics, and internet forensics, employing current techniques and tools for effective forensic analysis.

Course content

We’ve designed this course for in-person study, and to get the most of out it we strongly recommend you attend lectures on campus. You can complete some parts online without attending in person. We do have a presentation that we expect people to attend in person. Any exceptions for in-person attendance for assessment will be looked at on a case-by-case basis in exceptional circumstances, e.g., through disability services or by approval by the course coordinator.
 
If you started your programme of study remotely and can only study remotely, please contact the School so we can help and confirm what courses are available.

Withdrawal from Course

Withdrawal dates and process:
https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/study/course-additions-withdrawals

Lecturers

Teaching Format

There is one lecture per week on Tuesdays and the lecture will be automatically recorded and accessible online. Note that in some cases guest lecturers will ask for the session not to be recorded. We will inform you ahead of time if this is not the case.
 
The second lecture slot is available for assignment work and time when lecturers will be available in person or remotely.

Student feedback

We have reduced the workload for this course after feedback last year from students and discussion with industry.

Dates (trimester, teaching & break dates)

• Teaching: 26 February 2024 - 31 May 2024
• Break: 01 April 2024 - 14 April 2024
• Study period: 03 June 2024 - 06 June 2024
• Exam period: 07 June 2024 - 22 June 2024

Set Texts and Recommended Readings

Required

There are no required texts for this offering. Reading notes are provided before/after each lecture session.

Mandatory Course Requirements

In addition to achieving an overall pass mark of at least 50%, students must:

• Achieve at least a "D" in the case study assessment because this is where you will demonstrate your understanding of and ability to apply what you have learnt in the course.

If you believe that exceptional circumstances may prevent you from meeting the mandatory course requirements, contact the Course Coordinator for advice as soon as possible.

Assessment

You are permitted to use ChatGPT or similar technologies to help you learn and complete work in this course although what you submit must be understood by you, edited and amended by you and checked for correctness.
 
When used well, AI can be a great tool to support your learning. It can help you develop ideas, translate languages, generate images, create a song, or summarise texts. AI stops being a good idea when you are not learning, and the AI is doing too much of the work. Consider this: if you have to complete a task without AI in an exam—would you be okay?

Assessment Item	Due Date or Test Date	CLO(s)	Percentage
Assignment one - legal questions	Week 6	CLO: 2	30%
Assignment two - case study assignment	Week 11	CLO: 1,3	40%
Assignment three - presentation on recent developments in forensics	Week 15 during assessment period	CLO: 2	30%

Penalties

Late submissions for assignments will incur a penalty of 10 percent of the total points available per day, including weekends and holidays.  Note that Nuku rounds up the day to the next whole number. For instance, if an assignment is worth 100 points and you submit it 1.3 days late it will be rounded up to 2 days, your maximum attainable score will be reduced to 80 points, and so forth. Late penalties will be applied automatically by Nuku based on the submission timestamp, so ensure timely submission to avoid deductions.

Extensions

Extensions should be negotiated with the course coordinator before the deadline whenever possible. Documentation (eg, medical certificate) may be requested.

Submission & Return

All work should be submitted through Nuku via the course page. Marks and comments will be returned through Nuku.
 
Student submitted work may be used during the formal Engineering NZ re-accreditation visit to VUW scheduled for 2024, as part of the evaluation process for the programme.

Marking Criteria

We will publish a high-level marking rubric for each assignment.

Required Equipment

The case study requires you to run multiple virtual machines. We test these on our laboratory machines but if you are distance student make sure that you have a machine that has at least 8Gb of memory.

Workload

The student workload for this course is 150 hours.

Teaching Plan

See https://ecs.wgtn.ac.nz/Courses/CYBR472_2024T1/LectureSchedule

Communication of Additional Information

All online material for this course can be accessed via Nuku and should appear on your dashboard.

Links to General Course Information

• Academic Integrity and Plagiarism: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/study/exams/academic-integrity
• Academic Progress: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/study/progress/academic-progess (including restrictions and non-engagement)
• Dates and deadlines: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/study/dates
• Grades: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/study/progress/grades
• Special passes: Refer to the Assessment Handbook, at https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/documents/policy/staff-policy/assessment-handbook.pdf
• Statutes and policies, e.g. Student Conduct Statute: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/strategy
• Student support: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/students/support
• Students with disabilities: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/st_services/disability/
• Student Charter: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/learning-teaching/learning-partnerships/student-charter
• Student Feedback on University courses may be found at: http://www.cad.vuw.ac.nz/feedback/feedback_display.php
• Terms and Conditions: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/study/apply-enrol/terms-conditions/student-contract
• Turnitin: http://www.cad.vuw.ac.nz/wiki/index.php/Turnitin
• University structure: https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/about/governance/structure
• The Use of Te Reo Māori for Assessment Policy:
  Victoria University values te reo Māori. Students who wish to submit any of their assessments in te reo Māori must refer to The Use of Te Reo Māori for Assessment Policy
  He mea nui te reo Māori ki te Whare Wānanga o te Ūpoko o te Ika. Ki te pīrangi koe ki te tuhituhi i ō aro matawai i roto i te reo Māori, tēnā me mātua whakapā atu ki te kaupapa here, The Use of Te Reo Māori for Assessment Policy
• VUWSA: http://www.vuwsa.org.nz

Offering CRN: 32240

Points: 15
Prerequisites: 60 300-level pts from (AIML, COMP, CYBR, SWEN)
Duration: 26 February 2024 - 23 June 2024
Starts: Trimester 1
Campus: Kelburn